Americans don't want 'grand bargain'

Americans are about to choose among candidates who are debating whether to cut benefits for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and whether the richest Americans should pay their fair share of taxes.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney’s plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program and increase health care costs for seniors is a deciding issue in key battleground states and for key electorates. Another deciding issue is the scandalously low tax rate that people like Romney get away with paying.

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Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators who are not up for reelection is working behind closed doors in Washington to reach a so-called grand bargain that completely bypasses this debate and ignores the views of voters.

What is the grand bargain? It boils down to lower tax rates for rich people — paid for by benefit cuts for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These are precisely the issues that are being debated so vigorously in the campaign, and voters do not want anything to do with such a deal.

The pundits will tell you that Democrats have no choice but to accept Social Security and Medicare benefit cuts — because this is the only way Republicans will agree to more tax revenue. This is the grand bargain.

We could not disagree more.

When I hear people say we need to cut Social Security benefits, I wonder whether they know that millions of people lost their retirement savings in the Great Recession and that traditional pensions are increasingly hard to come by. Do the benefit cutters think seniors are sitting around wondering how to spend their lavish retirement benefits — now averaging the princely sum of $14,500 per year? Do they think near-seniors are suddenly realizing that their savings and pensions are much more secure than they had ever imagined possible? Are the people who want to raise the retirement age aware that life expectancy for Americans who lack a high school diploma is actually declining? Do they understand that raising the retirement age is a benefit cut, no matter what age you retire?

Of course we have to bring down health care costs, but not by cutting benefits and not by shifting more costs to individuals. The right way to bring down health care costs is to make our health care system more cost effective, stop overpayments for care and reform the way we deliver and pay for care. For example, allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices from the big pharmaceutical companies would save a lot of money — but Republicans have blocked this at every turn.